The Importance of Firmographics for B2B Marketing
Firmographics are the attributes B2B companies use to segment their target market in order to discover their ideal consumer. Similar to the role demographics play in B2C campaigns, segmenting your target market by using firmographics increases the chance that the material you are putting out is reaching other businesses that are most likely to respond positively.
B2B Marketing and Firmographics
What are Firmographics?
Firmographics are the attributes B2B companies use to segment their target market in order to discover their ideal consumers.
To better understand firmographics and the role they play in market segmentation, think of B2B companies using firmographics in the same way that B2C companies use demographics. Both are used to segment target markets to reach an ideal audience.
Firmographics and demographics are different in the fact that demographics are used to segment consumers and firmographics are used to target other businesses that can potentially turn into clients.
B2B vs. B2C – Different goals
So what’s the difference between B2C and B2B marketing campaigns? Both kinds of campaigns have distinct goals.
In B2C marketing campaigns, the goal is to increase sales and brand recognition by reaching the consumers who are likely to turn into conversions. They do this by breaking up the customers into segments based on demographics, psychographics,geography, behavior, etc.
On the other hand, B2B marketer’s main audiences are other companies, not individual people. Therefore, they are also more interested in creating and maintaining relationships with other companies than a B2C business might be.
B2B Customer Segmentation Criteria
B2B marketers segment their target market, or other companies and businesses that would be interested in their products or services, based on specific desirable characteristics.
There are countless different criteria for segmenting your target market using firmographics. Here are a few of the more common segmentation categories:
- Industry: What products or services do your target market provide? How does what you are offering help enhance their business?
- Annual Revenue: Are they a Fortune 500 company or do they operate on a smaller scale? Has their revenue increased or decreased over recent years?
- Company Size: Is the company or business you are trying to target a major company or do they work on a smaller scale? Is the company or business a startup or an established leader of their industry? How many employees do they currently have? Are they growing or downsizing?
- Geography/Location: Where is this company located? Are they located in a major city or a small town? Do they have multiple locations around the global or do they operate out of one location?
- Stage in the Sale Cycle: Is the company or business you are trying to target in a position to make a purchase? Or are they merely looking for more information to possibly make a purchase at a later date?
- The kind of information you present to a company should represent where they are in the buyer’s cycle. One way to enhance this practice is through lead nurturing, or leading your customers through the buyer’s cycle by building relationships and understanding what they want and need.
There are many other ways to segment your target market using firmographics, so it is important to thoroughly analyze your goals and research what kinds of companies or businesses would be interested in your product.
B2B Marketing Segmentation
Different kinds of campaigns will call for different segmentation criteria. For example, when targeting local businesses, you may be interested in tracking the distance of that business from your office. For a national campaign, you may be less interested in how far your target market is from you and more interested in their size or stage in the sales cycle.
Distinct Messaging, Consistent Brand Voice
Similar to a B2C campaign, the messaging you use for different B2B marketing campaigns should vary based on your specific goals in order to increase your likelihood of reaching your desired campaign results. However, remember to keep your brand’s voice consistent across different campaigns and platforms.
Understanding What You Have to Offer
Before using firmographics to segment your target market for a B2B marketing campaign, make sure you have a complete understanding of what your company has to offer. After all, you are trying to show a potential business customer that your products and services will enhance their ability to do their jobs and achieve results. If you don’t understand what you have to offer, then there’s no way your customers will either.
Keeping firmographic segmentation in mind throughout the B2B marketing process will help to ensure that you are segmenting your market in the most beneficial way and help lead you to the perfect business match.
Are you interested in Bridge’s B2B firmographics capabilities? Click here.
http://www.thebridgecorp.com/firmographics/